Monday MAdnEsS ~ Loving Memories

This morning I had the usual breakfast meeting with the usual suspects (fellow clergy) and friends. At one point in our boisterous conversation, amid the laughter and the jokes, we had a quiet moment of reflection as many of us thought of a dear sister in Christ who has gone home to be with her Lord, our Lord. Most of us had only heard of her diagnoses of cancer a few weeks ago and are shocked and numb at how quickly she was gone. Some of us knew her quite well and have a deep ache in the heart. Others sitting around the table this morning were briefly touched by her sweet spirit but also have an ache in heart.

This has made me pause and think. How will people remember me one day?

Fifteen+ years ago my little brother died. To this day I have people contact me and tell me of some small waythat he touched their lives. When our son passed away we had family and friends who told us how he touched their lives and we are comforted by hearing those stories still today. You see, the stories remind us – he lived!

So, my friends, enjoy the stories I pass along and share yours with me because you matter to me! You have touched my life in small ways and big ways and GINORMOUS ways!

May you be blessed today and remembered always ~

Posted Aug 21, 2006 11:12pm

Today we received the life insurance money for Matthew. And it was two months ago today that we buried him. Is it irony? Is it simply a matter-of-fact that life goes on and one life gone doesn’t matter much except for the business of the mundane?

I saw that check and I was filled with rage and unbelievable sorrow that my son’s life had a dollar amount attached to it. Yet I know that his life was an unmeasured and unrealized treasure to so many people – until he was gone.

We live in regrets of how we could have been better as Matthew’s parents, or a better brother, or a better sister. And we are grieving so deeply that there are no words to share and no tears to shed.

“I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.” 2 Timothy 1:3-4